One of the premiere running events in the country, the 2012 Condura Skyway Marathon is bigger than ever with its new start and end venue at Filinvest, Alabang as well as the new Skyway route starting from Alabang all the way to the end and back for the Full Marathon category. Another new for this year’s edition, the event will start at around midnight for the 42km runners, and there will be a Wave system to avoid a bottleneck and to ensure the safety of all runners because the first kilometer of the route is a narrow climb up the Skyway.
Last year, I did my first Full Marathon at the Condura Skyway Marathon 2011 and the memories of finishing my first marathon are still fresh. Imagine running half-way of the full mary with your toenails sore as hell! Talk about newbie runners mistake, I ran using a smaller sized and wrong type shoesJ. I promised to myself to do it again, so here I am doing the 2012 Condura Skyway Marathon gunning for a faster time and making sure to use the right sized and type of shoes. Another reason is I want my brother to experience the feeling of finishing a Full Marathon. We started training since December and I wanted to be sure that he do his training right, avoid any injuries while training as well as have a nutrition plan for the race. My initial plan is to pace him till the 30km ensuring that he take adequate nutrition and hydration.
Final 2km of the 2012 Condura Skyway Marathon
The route is a mix of flat and climbs, with the hardest climb located around Sucat. Good thing me and my brother did most of our training at NBP Reserve in Muntinlupa City, mostly an 11km uphill/downhill route. Though a lot of runners had a hard time during the uphill portions of the Skyway, we really didn’t have a hard time thanks to our training. The route was well hydrated with water, but sports drinks were scarce which is the biggest complaint by runners for this year’s edition. The heat wasn’t a factor anyways since the event is during midnight. Portalets where scattered along the route, which is a big plus for me. There were free Energy gels as well, but only at the 32km point.
Finished the Full Marathon strong (and injury free) with a time of 4hrs and 39 mins, beating my 2011 time of about 6mins. My Brother finished with a time of 5hrs and 30mins, not bad for a first time marathoner. Overall the event was great, and the fireworks at the finish line were a nice touch. Waiting for my brother at the finish line and watching all the first time finishers of the full marathon relieves the memories of my first marathon finish, it’s really great to see all the finishers smiles and cries after all the hardships.
To all finishers especially to all the first time marathoners, Congratulations! Will definitely do next year’s Condura Skyway Marathon, see you all next year!
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